Benigni's Guido is so intent on believing that life is--and should be--beautiful, he goes to great lengths to ensure that vision for his wife and, particularly, his son. The first half of the movie is an amusing boy-meets-girl story, Italian-comedy style, with Benigni chasing and winning his real-life wife, actress Braschi. The second half shifts to the concentration camp where Guido, his son, and--because she would not be parted from him--his wife are imprisoned. Guido fabricates an elaborate game to convince his son that the whole ordeal--the "trip"--is an endurance test to be won, with prizes forthcoming. In a particularly humorous scene, Guido "translates" a guard's barking at the prisoners as further clarification of the "rules" of the game. If the movie depicts the horrors of the concentration camps as less than horrifying, it should be forgiven; Benigni's focus is on the love between father, son, and wife.